How Digital Tech Can Help You Become a More Socially Responsible Consumer
Simon Mainwaring is the founder of We First, a social branding consultancy that helps companies, non-profits and consumer groups build a better world through social technology. He is the author of a new book, We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World.Are you committed to building a better world? Would you like to see corporations take greater responsibility to implement sustainable business practices, protect the environment and contribute to a more just and equitable society?
If your answer is yes, chances are you’re already taking action to create change as best as you can. But aside from altering your shopping habits or investing in socially responsible funds, you may feel limited in what else you can do.
The following is a “framework” or guide for social activism designed to cut through the confusion and indecision that so many socially conscious shoppers experience.
Rather than thinking about activism as a sequence of unrelated, one-at-a-time actions, this framework lays out a progression of seven stages to becoming a media-savvy and responsible consumer. It’s “evolutionary” because each stage engenders a higher level of behavior than the previous one. Each step up moves you toward greater commitment, responsibility and even leadership in the movement.
1. Individual Commitment
You start by changing your mindset to consider how your consumption habits impact the world. You begin doing more mindful and socially responsible shopping, preferring eco-friendly and sustainable products from responsible companies. You may use the Internet and perhaps smartphone apps (such as Good Guide) to check into company backgrounds before purchasing products from them. You transfer your personal wealth into social investing funds.
2. Community Engagement
You begin engaging in social media to explore communities and causes to get involved with. You work to formally identify those brands that reflect your values and consciously purchase them over all others. You read online magazines, blogs and tweets to connect with and get advice from like-minded consumers.
3. Promote Values
You engage in dialogue with others about values and begin to formulate a values statement for yourself that you commit to living up to. You push back on corporations for breaches of integrity when they fail to live up to your values, but you also celebrate those companies that demonstrate authentic commitments. You regularly use social media to post product reviews online to inform others; you even write or contribute to blogs or tweet about your admiration or frustration with a brand.
4. Drive Awareness as Producer/Distributor/Curator
You decide to participate at a higher level as a driver of information and issues. You film and post videos or write articles for websites. You distribute articles written by others using your Twitter or Facebook account. You “Like” or “Recommend” articles you read on websites, trying to alert your friends to them. You are a vocal proponent for a cause.
5. Commitment to Thought Leadership
In this phase, you assume the role of a thought leader who provides analysis and opinion to educate others. You begin sharing your ideas in many formats: books, articles, interviews, videos, webinars, blogs and tweets. You are driven not by ego but by your conviction that your ideas and values can help shape an issue and play a role in advancing social change.
6. Build a Community
At this level, you seek to organize other people together into a community that shares your thinking and values. This work is both online and offline to ensure that it does not remain a virtual community with little impact in the real world.
7. Connect Communities to Start a Movement
In this last stage, you aim to coalesce and synchronize the work of other thought leaders and related communities to help form them all into a bona fide movement with clear objectives and goals. Your objective is to build a larger organization with a unified message and a single strategic plan to effect change on a large scale.
Where Do You Fit In?
Not every consumer will go all the way up this evolutionary ladder. As in any movement, it’s up to each individual to determine how far he or she wants to participate and how much time he or she can give. Each person must work within his or her own comfort zone in accordance with his or her specific skills, time and interest.
However, every individual effort counts. We need millions of shoppers with all sorts of skills if we are to achieve widespread, progressive social transformation. This framework reminds us that we can no longer accept the “slactivism” that social technology might enable but instead use our connected lifestyles for a more concerted social good effort.
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